


Hallelujah

by obsidians



Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Cloud is dead, F/M, Loss of Virginity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-21 22:20:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11366799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obsidians/pseuds/obsidians
Summary: This is song fic with Tifa/Reno based around the Leonard Cohen song, Hallelujah. LC has always been a thing with my mother that she passed onto me; being a hippie in the 1960's in Montreal and being part of an art crowd made it impossible for her to avoid him. Anywho, just read the lyrics and what is between for the story. M for Mature. Character Death warning.





	Hallelujah

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own FF7 or its characters and make no money from writing these stories.

[Verse 1]  
Now I've heard there was a secret chord  
That David played, and it pleased the Lord  
But you don't really care for music, do you?  
It goes like this  
The fourth, the fifth  
The minor fall, the major lift  
The baffled king composing "Hallelujah"

"I'm sorry for your loss" the young WRO soldier said to Tifa as he had been instructed to do and glanced at Rufus, who had insisted on accompanying him to the young man's almost widow to tell her of Cloud's death.

"He died a hero trying to defend a town against a flock of monsters. They had cornered a little girl and he charged in and rescued her at the cost of his own life. He'll be buried with full honours and I'll pay for the funeral" Rufus said to the dead eyed looking woman.

"No, he was a simple country boy and wouldn't have wanted that. He would have wanted to be buried beside his mother in Nibelheim, please cremate him and return his ashes to me and I'll hold a wake for him here. I'll take him there myself when I'm ready to" she said in a voice devoid of any emotion.

"I'll make the arrangements" Rufus agreed. "I'm sorry, he was a great man and shall be sorely missed" he said and then left her. Tifa numbly wrote a sign on a simple white sheet of paper and stuck it to the window "Closed until further notice due to a death in the family" and went upstairs to find a dress suitable to host the wake in.

[Chorus]  
Hallelujah, Hallelujah  
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 2]  
Your faith was strong but you needed proof  
You saw her bathing on the roof  
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you  
She tied you to a kitchen chair  
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair  
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

The wake lasted for a full week and Tifa silently grieved her lost mate wearing the same black modest dress that would have suited a young widow. She did little more than sleepwalk in her grief, she put on the black dress every morning after her shower and would wear nothing else. She felt dead as Cloud was and ate and slept little.

Her friends tried to be there for her in her grief but eventually had to return their own lives to earn a living or return to loved ones, you could only neglect your own life so long, so each day of the wake yielded less of a turn out.

Yet there had been many people coming to pay their respects, even ex-enemies would come to have a drink to his memory.

Rufus had thoughtfully sealed Cloud's ashes in a beautiful ceramic urn with a grassy meadow sprawled out at the base and a blue sky with gentle drifting clouds painted on it. This never left Tifa's side unless it was on the altar she had built to display his ashes and she sat beside it, other than that she carried it with her everywhere and even slept with it.

On the last day of the wake, she set her final will and testament on the bar to be found, leaving everything to Denzel and a letter explaining she couldn't live without Cloud.

She didn't bother locking the bar as she walked out into thunderstorm and was instantly drenched to her skin in the dress she wore but she calmly got onto the Cloud's motorcycle, tucked his ashes into the storage compartment and revved it up.

The well tuned machine caught on the first try and she roared off into the night to meet what she regarded as being her only fate.

A black sport cars followed her a few seconds later, it was so finely tuned that the motor was almost silent. The lights were off but the car's owner had little trouble following the loud motorcycle as it drove to its destination. Tifa reached the cliff and turned off the bike and stowed the key in the hidden compartment that only Denzel knew about, so it would become his along with her estate.

She picked up Cloud's ashes and calmly walked forward to the cliff's edge, wanting only to leap from it to join Cloud in the Lifestream. There was nothing keeping her there, only Denzel and he lived with Barret most of the time.

She had almost reach it when she got tackled.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Reno demanded, he was just as sodden as her now and pissed off. He'd been at the wake the first night and every night since, partly out of respect for Cloud and partly for the open bar. However, he had found himself studying Tifa and hadn't liked her demeanor, she reminded him too much of his old friends where he grew up, who were world weary before their time and eventually killed themselves to escape poverty. So he'd been monitoring her movements as he was between missions at the moment.

"Let go of me" she insisted.

"Get in my car, I'm driving you home" he insisted seizing her wrist and grunted as she split his lip with her fist, while her foot met his ribs, he answered by punching her back as gently as he could, attempting only to knock her out but she gave back just as good as him until they were out and out sparring.

Finally, he managed to pin her to the ground and she headbutted him and he just turned his head to the side and spit out blood as rain washed the blood from the injury on his head. Tifa glared up at him and then shocked him by kissing him, all but sinking her teeth into his already injured lip but he kissed her back just a brutally and this ignited Tifa's anger and her arms wiggled free and tore his shirt open, clawing at his muscular torso and back, telling him what she needed in her grief. His hand shoved up her long, wet skirt and touched the front of her sodden panties while she fumbled his belt and pants open.

"If this is what I need to do to keep you alive, I will" he said as he ripped her panties off with a moan from her and hastily positioned himself between her spread legs. He speared himself into her, only to be blocked, "you're a virgin" he said with shock in his voice and went to draw back.

"Don't stop, fuck me. Don't spare me" she screamed into the storm as thunder and lightning crashed above them and her fingernails bit into hard buttocks to goad him on, needing to feel something after being so dead inside for so long.

Reno cursed and then split her hymen with one lunge and a cry from her, he tried to take it easy on her but she needed every sensation he could give her, even pain in her grief and frustration and soon cried out in her first orgasm.

It was the like violence of the storm had entered them as they fucked with abandonment, rolling in the mud and wrestling for dominance, sometimes she was on top, sometimes he was, her dress was now at her waist where it had been torn away and her rain slicked breast bounced with each thrust and grind. He retained most of his clothes but they were both filthy as they lunged together, her orgasms washing over her with the force of the storm and he threw his head back when he heavily came into her and looked down at her as he panted as if working out for hours. It was without a doubt the most mind blowing sex he'd ever experienced.

He got up and fastened his pants and she got to her feet and covered her breasts with her arms, stricken as she finally realized what she had allowed to happen. They both were covered with dirt and debris and leaves were in their hair. He was the first to move as he went to his car and got a blanket and put it around her.

"Let's go" he said.

"Go where?" she asked as she picked up Cloud's ashes and cradled them.

"Home; to my place" he said, "don't worry about the bike. We have people who specialize in retrieving vehicles and shall call them and have it delivered to your place. They'll remove your will and suicide note while they're there so no one will ever know. Don't bother asking how I know about them. Let's just say I would be bad at my job if I didn't and I'm very, very good" he said and she silently followed him to his car.

[Chorus]  
Hallelujah, Hallelujah  
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 3]  
Baby I have been here before  
I know this room, I've walked this floor  
I used to live alone before I knew you  
I've seen your flag on the marble arch  
Love is not a victory march  
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

"You live here?" she asked him looking at the rather nice house, she had him pegged as the sort with a perpetual bachelor pad.

"Rude talked me into trying real estate investing, so I bought this house" he explained as he unlocked the door and put his goggles to be cleaned on a small table, along with his keys and wallet.

"We need showers. Come, there's one in the guest room bathroom and one in my bedroom bathroom. I'll start a fire while you shower and place some clothes for you to wear on the bed, and then shall take one myself" he insisted giving her a towel.

She blushed in memory of what she had done with him as she allowed her ruined dress to fall to the floor, along with the blanket and stepped into the hot flow and cleaned herself from head to toe, gingerly scrubbing herself between her legs where it was aching. She turned off the water and wrapped the towel around herself and found a pair of lounge pants and a t-shirt on the bed, along with a hairbrush.

She quickly dressed, having to roll up the pant legs a couple of times, but at least she was clean and dressed and then brushed out her hair as fast as possible, realizing she would have to face the man who'd deflowered her and didn't see the point in delaying the inevitable.

Reno seemed to have had his own shower and was dressed pretty much the same as her and his wet hair, allowing it to air dry.

"Come sit by the fire, your hair will dry faster that way. Can I get you a glass wine?" he asked her.

"Please" she said in a small voice and he poured a glass and handed it to her.

"Is he really worth killing yourself for?" Reno asked her without preamble.

"He's my whole life...was" she explained.

"Yes you loved him unconditionally it appeared. Or was it obsession?" he inquired.

"I really don't know the difference" she said.

"Either way, I can't allow that to happen, not on my watch. I shall just have to keep you distracted" he said in a suggestive way that made her shiver. "You're spending the night here."

"In your bed?" she asked him in shock.

"If you come to my bed, I shall hold you and offer you comfort, nothing more. You must be too sore for anything else and I'm exhausted. I never thought that a virgin would make me this fatigued. Or you can sleep in the guest room" he offered.

"I don't want to sleep alone tonight" she ventured.

"My bed with me it is. Now the question is; why were you a virgin?" he asked her.

"I had the romantic notion as a girl that we should wait for our wedding night and then he ran away. The next time I saw him, was the day Sephiroth almost ended my life. Then Sephiroth got a hold of Cloud and he had no interest afterwards" she admitted.

True to his word, Reno pulled her against his side and she settled into sleep with her head on his shoulder, lulled by their combined body heat and the sound his beating heart.

[Chorus]  
Hallelujah, Hallelujah  
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 4]  
There was a time you let me know  
What's really going on below  
But now you never show it to me, do you?  
And remember when I moved in you  
The holy dove was moving too  
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Tifa was wrapped in the bed sheets of Reno's bed a few weeks later, wondering why she always seemed to seek him out. "Why do we spend these nights together?" she asked him, he lay back on the pillows as he stroked the soft flesh of one of her shoulders.

He cupped her chin and made her look at him, "misery loves company and you seem to like how I make you feel" he said with a slight smirk, his eyes always seemed to be softer after they had coupled. "I like doing this with you" he said as started stroking her body, preparing her for another round and smiled at how she let out a breathy moan when he entered her again. She always made this sound when he did and he liked how only he had ever heard her make it.

[Chorus]  
Hallelujah, Hallelujah  
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 5]  
You say I took the name in vain  
I don't even know the name  
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?  
There's a blaze of light  
In every word  
It doesn't matter which you heard  
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

"What do you get out of all of this?" Tifa asked Reno as he pulled her top off after she woke him up at three am, unable to sleep and wanting him. So she went to him, telling herself it was just lust that drew her there, not a need to simply want to be with him.

"I get you and I get to do this to you" he replied smiling at the absurdity of her question as he lightly pinched one of her nipples and this caused her to melt into his arms as he picked her up and lay on her on his bed as gently as if she were a new bride and took her tenderly until she purred beneath him. He wondered why his heart felt so light as she slept in his arms afterwards as he held her like she was the most precious jewel in the world, thrilled she had come to him so unexpectedly in the middle of the night when he'd fallen asleep wishing she were with him.

[Chorus]  
Hallelujah, Hallelujah  
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 6]  
Maybe there's a God above  
But all I've ever learned from love  
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you  
And it's not a cry that you hear at night  
It's not somebody who's seen the light  
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

"When are you going to return his ashes to Nibelheim? You have to give him up, this isn't healthy" Reno said with frustration as he looked at how Cloud's ashes were on the kitchen counter while they ate dinner. The ghost of her ex always seemed to haunt them and sleep in bed with them.

"I'm not ready to" she replied, unable to look at him.

"Aren't I enough for you?" he asked her.

"I care for you...but I loved him" she said, feeling conflicted.

"You're obsessed with him. What we have, it is just sex to you?" he demanded of her, standing up, not realizing what he was implying.

"I don't know. You're a TURK, Cloud wouldn't approve of us" she cried in confusion and Reno stormed off feeling just as confused at how he felt hurt and how his heart seemed to ache. Tifa felt just as horrible after their fight and cried herself to sleep that night, her heart torn between a dead man she could not seem to let go of and one who was very much alive and seemed to want her.

[Chorus]  
Hallelujah, Hallelujah  
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 7]  
I did my best, it wasn't much  
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch  
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you  
And even though  
It all went wrong  
I'll stand before the Lord of Song  
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Tifa came to see him the next day and he felt concerned how her eyes were swollen from crying. He felt bothered that he might have been the cause of her tears. "I need to go back to Nibelheim" she firmly said.

"I'll take you" Reno offered.

He got clearance from Rufus and silently they flew there with him piloting the helicopter. The town barely existed with its burnt husks of buildings and the environment was trying to reclaim the space with how everything was overgrown.

"I can stay here with the helicopter" Reno offered, though loathed the idea of leaving her undefended, even though she was a skilled martial artist.

"Please come with me" Tifa requested and he allowed her to lead the way as she went into a meadow and started picking wild flowers. "This is where I had my first kiss" she said walking over to a flowering tree and touched it.

"It's beautiful here; mine was in a fast food restaurant and her tongue piercing tickled me" Reno said and Tifa was surprised when she felt a twinge of jealousy at learning this.

"Now let's go the cemetery" she said dividing the flowers into two bouquets.

"Are you sure you want me there?" Reno asked her.

"Yes" she said, she couldn't imagine being without him in fact.

She stood before one grave "this is my father's grave" she said putting half of the flowers on it and Reno gave her some privacy as she hugged the headstone and softly spoke to it and walked back to her when she stood up. "This is Reno, Daddy" she finished, taking his hand.

"Nice to meet you sir" he said with a bow, feeling rather foolish but felt happy at how she beamed at him in approval of this gesture.

"This is Cloud's mother's grave. Will you help me dig?" she asked taking two trowels from her backpack and they did. Once it was big enough, she took the out the urn and put it in the hole.

"Are you sure about this?" Reno asked her.

"He's home" she said and covered it. She seemed to be saying silent goodbyes and then stood up and put the other bouquet on the gravestone and dusted off her hands.

"Now what?" Reno asked her.

"I have to plan for a new future" she said as they made their way back to the helicopter and he helped her into it, and fussed over buckling her in as if she were precious cargo.

"So is there anywhere else you want to go before we have to leave?" Reno asked her as he put on his headset.

"No, just take me home. You know, I've changed my mind. I think Cloud would have approved of us" she said to him, giving him a tender smile and lightly touching the back of his hand while he operated the controls and that made his heart skip a beat as their helicopter rose into the beautiful blue sky as if it were about to kiss the heavens themselves.

[Chorus]  
Hallelujah, Hallelujah  
Hallelujah, Hallelujah


End file.
